Grumblings of an Out of Work Guardian
by Jetflash
Summary: What's Auron doing sitting on the side of the Mi'hen Highroad drinking? Isn't he supposed to be guarding Yuna? Well, according to him, she doesn't need it.


AN: Wow. My second actual fanfiction, and my first foray into Final Fantasy Fanfiction of any type. This takes place outside of canon, sometime during the pilgrimage, after Yuna gets the Nirvana staff, and before the fight with Sin. Auron is very out of character. Anyway, I just thought this up a little bit ago, and thought it was kind of humorous, so here we go.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, monsters, locations, weapons, or anything from Final Fantasy X. This is a work of fiction for which I am not getting paid.

The Grumblings of an Out-of-Work Guardian

It is a beautiful day in Spira. As we walk along the Mi'hen Highroad, we see a man sitting by the side of the road. The man has short-cropped graying black hair, with the back tied into a small ponytail, and sunglasses. He is wearing black body armor, with a long red robe over it. One of his arms is through the sleeve of the robe, but the other is not, holding, instead, a very large Sake bottle, from which he is imbibing heavily. Next to him on the ground is a VERY large sword. He notices our approach, and looks up from his drinking.

"What do you want?" He asks in a very deep voice, not seeming to be affected by the alcohol he was drinking at all.

"I bet I know what you're thinking. You're probably wondering, 'what the hell is Auron, famous guardian of Lord Braska and Lady Yuna, doing sitting by the side of the road drinking?'

"Well, let me tell you a little story."

We suddenly see an image of Auron, Lord Braska, and the other guardian, Jecht. Yet, we can still hear Auron talking.

"When I was Braska's guardian, He actually needed Jecht and me to protect him. Not to say he was useless, but unless he was using one of his summons, he was more a healer than a fighter. We went on the Pilgrimage, and when it was over, I was the only one of our little group left; so I wandered. I spent the next ten years or so watching over Yuna, as well as Jecht's kid, like he asked before he died. But that's not really important."

The image changes, to show Yuna, Tidus, Kimahri, Wakka, Lulu, and Auron standing at the stadium in Luca.

"I met up with Yuna and her guardians in Luca, during the commotion at the stadium there. I decided to join up with them, because it had been a while since I had really felt needed, and I thought it would be… fun. And it was, at first.

"Yuna really needed the protection. Being trained as a summoner, like Braska she couldn't really fight without her summons, so we would protect her, and she would heal us when we needed it. That was all well and good. Then, a good ways into our journey, she learned the only offensive white magic spell, Holy.

"That was fine too, really, because it cost her a lot of strength to cast it, so it was mostly saved for desperate situations, like when we ran into a King Behemoth, or an Adamantoise, or some such. You know, monsters that are very large and obscenely powerful. She could cast it a few times a day, and then have to rest. That is, until she got that staff."

The image once again changes, showing Yuna holding up the Nirvana.

"That stupid staff… It made it so that it took much less energy for Yuna to cast any of her spells, including Holy. This was okay at first, but it soon went to her head. Being able to cast possibly the most powerful spell out there anytime you want is a pretty big temptation. She soon started using it on anything that crossed her path: from Bombs…"

The image changes, to show Yuna blasting a Bomb with Holy.

"To Scouters…"

The image now shows Yuna casting Holy on the small machine monster.

"To Raldo!"

Shows Yuna killing the small armored creature with a single Holy.

"She was infringing on my territory! The armored ones were supposed to be my kills! But that wasn't the worst of it. She soon started using it outside of battle too, like when Tidus did something stupid…"

The image shows Tidus lying in a smoking crater.

"To things so small… Well, let me just show you."

The image suddenly starts moving, showing Yuna walking through Kilika Forest. She suddenly screams "EEK! A MOSQUITO! TAKE THIS! HOLY!" One explosion of light later, there is a smoking crater in the middle of the jungle. The rest of the guardians are shown, staring at Yuna in fear.

"WHAT! IT WAS ASKING FOR IT!" The other guardians backed away quickly.

Suddenly, the image disappears.

Auron started speaking again. "So, as you can see, she didn't need me to protect her. She was doing well enough on her own. Anyway, I didn't want to end up like Tidus."

The image appears one last time, to show Tidus lying burnt in a crater, crying, "why me, god, why me?"

As the image disappears again, we see Auron walking off. As he leaves, he gives a parting message. "So know you know why I was sitting by the side of the road. I'll take my leave now. Oh, and if you should see flashes of white light and hear explosions near you, I just have one piece of advice…

"Run like hell."

Closing AN: Here we go. Special thanks go to CB!'s Monster Arena FAQ from Gamefaqs for the name of the weakest small armored mole-creature, Raldo, and also to CB!'s Ultimate Weapon guide, also from Gamefaqs, for the name of the Nirvana. I always felt that the One MP Cost ability on the Nirvana was kind of cheap, because by the time I beat the game, Yuna could cast any spell or combination of spells 758 times in a row without replenishing her MP, so why not Holy? I'm pretty sure it's more powerful than Ultima or Flare. Anyways, thinking about the fact that because she's so fast she was making the rest of the characters somewhat superfluous, made me think of this. Make no mistake, I use Auron a lot, but I just felt it would be funnier to have the super-serious Auron be somewhat upset over not be useful. Also, a shout out to Arganaut for the fic "Naruto: An Alternative Story," which reminded me of my thoughts on this matter and gave me the idea to use Auron.


End file.
